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The league honored four Lion football players by naming them to the 2018 Preseason All-Southland Conference Football Teams.

Junior kick returner Juwan Petit-Frere was selected for the first team while sophomore running back Marcus Cooper, junior offensive lineman Alfred Beverly III and senior linebacker Tamarcus Russell made the second team.

“It’s always good that our guys receive recognition for the things they have done in the past, but we’re looking more towards the future,” said Head Coach Frank Scelfo. “Hopefully by the end of the season, we’ll have many more guys on the team.”

For Petit-Frere, the recognition is another in a list of honors. He also made the 2017 STATS FCS All-America First Team, the 2017 Phil Steele FCS All-America First Team, the 2017 All-Southland Conference Second Team and the 2017 All-Louisiana First Team. In 2017, his kickoff return average was the second highest for a season in the Southland Conference’s history.

Cooper made the 2017 STATS Jerry Rice Award Watch List and the 2017 Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week while reaching a single-season school record of 10.1 yards per carry.

In 2017, Beverly played in all 11 games on the offensive line. Beverly’s work on the offensive line helped the team rank third nationally in rushing yards per game.

Russell also played in all 11 games as a reserve linebacker in 2017. In his first season, Russell made 24 tackles, five tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

Scelfo shared his views of the honorees as both players and men.

“You can watch them on the field, and you can see how well they perform and how hard they’ve worked to get to that point as a player,” said Scelfo. “But when you really get to know them off the field, you find out what type of people they really are, and they really are quality men.”

Scelfo discussed his expectations of the four players heading into the season.

“All of them are good leaders for us,” said Scelfo. “They provide that type of inspiration for the whole team, but at the end of the day, we want them to get better, become the best players they can be for the season and help lead us to some victories.”

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